Tomorrow night marks the end of a "hugely successful" maiden season of the Gourmet Night Markets held in Coronation Park, Mount Maunganui.
The market held every Friday evening, which featured selected stall-holders from the Bay of Plenty and Waikato, was also the only ongoing event in the Bay of Plenty to compost its waste.
Gourmet Night Market director Kim Renshaw said she had an interest in the environment and waste management minimisation strategies.
There were few events in New Zealand which composted their waste and even fewer who were able to achieve zero waste, she said
"I decided to bring on board the most passionate composting and zero-waste guy I know and give him a management role, Sam Gray. We decided to aim for a zero-waste event, which is diverting a percentage of above 95 per cent of event waste from landfill."
Ms Renshaw said they had achieved this goal with the support of stallholders and customers. "We hit 95 per cent and above a number of times during the season which is a huge success for us."
Ms Renshaw said she set clear guidelines for her stall holders around the types of plates, cups, and cutlery they could use.
"We developed a relationship with local compost facility Revital Fertiliser who agreed to take our food scraps along with our plates, cutlery and cups as long as they were made of specific materials. We also agreed to go on-site to Revital each week and hand-sort every bag of compost waste, pulling out any contaminates like bottle tops, cans and plastic."
Ms Renshaw helped sort the compost at Revital each week.
She said she started out with a vision of creating a Friday night food and farmers market with live music aiming to attract weekly crowds of around 1500.
"At our peak on January 10 and January 24, we had crowds of about 6000 people through the markets. Visitors travelled to the region from Taupo, Rotorua, Whakatane and Hamilton."
The markets opened at the Mount on December 12, 2013.
Ms Renshaw said for this week's final Gourmet Night Market they were having a black-tie dress code.
"It should be fun, the perfect opportunity to celebrate the success of the season ..."